Estudo da viabilidade para fabricação de fibra óptica polimérica (FOP) por extrusão vertical / Study of the feasibility on manufacturing polymeric optical fiber (POF) by vertical extrusion

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

15/08/2011

RESUMO

Polymeric optical fibers (POF) presents some advantages compared to the glass optical fibers as flexibility, higher numerical aperture (NA), ease in handling and connecting due to their larger diameter and lower cost manufacturing and installation. However, due to their larger transmission losses compared to the main applications of glass fibers, POF are limited to short distances, such as local area networks (LAN), vehicle electronics, industrial automation, sensors, guides lighting and displays. PMMA - poly (methyl methacrylate) is the most common material used in the core of optical devices, since it has better optical properties in comparison with other optical polymers such as PS (polysterene) and PC (polycarbonate). In this study, it is proposed a new method to manufacture POF by vertical extrusion using PMMA and PVDF - poly (vinylidene fluoride) as core and cladding materials, respectively. The polymers are simultaneously extruded using the same die, taking advantage of their compatibility and similar processing parameters. The POF produced were characterized for core and cladding morphology and composition, by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX or EDS) and optical properties measurements of loss attenuation as a function of wavelength. The lowest spectral attenuation measured of the produced POF was 10,70 dB/m at 840 nm. Likely, lower losses could be expected if a more appropriated cleaving method for POF would be used and improvements on fiber coupling for loss attenuation measurements. In addition, the losses measured are also due to the irregular thickness of the fluorinated layer (cladding) around the core of the POF produced. Although, improvements are needed to get a FOP with regular diameters of cores and cladding, the one-step process developed for POF manufacturing by simultaneous extrusion of PMMA (core) and PVDF (cladding) showed to be feasible and could be a potential process for ease production of POF for short length applications

ASSUNTO(S)

pmma fibras óticas extrusão pmma optical fiber extrusion

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